ABSTRACT
Objectives: The study was conducted to evaluate the effect ofbreastfeeding counseling and breastfeeding support by trainedcounselors during the ante-natal period at health facility and post-natal period at home on breastfeeding practices during the first sixmonths of life.Design: This was a randomized controlled study that comparedthe effect of counseling on breastfeeding during the first 6 monthsof life.Setting: study was done in a government medical college innorthern India, which is situated in an urban area.Participants: 300 healthy pregnant women from an urbanpopulation attending the antenatal clinic at Jawaharlal NehruMedical College, Aligarh Muslim University were recruited for thestudy.Intervention: Subjects were equally assigned randomly to theintervention (2 antenatal and 8 postpartum home counseling visitsby the counselors) and control (non-counseling) group.Main Outcome Measures: Infant feeding practices includingrates of initiation of the breastfeeding within one hour of birth;exclusive breastfeeding and bottle-feeding during the first 6months of life.Results: Initiation of breastfeeding within one hour of birth was73.4% in intervention group as compared to 33.6% in controlgroup (P=0.001). More mothers in the intervention group (88.1%)were able to sustain exclusive breastfeeding rates at 6 months ofage in comparison to the control group (50%) (OR 7.44, 95% CI3.98-13.92).Conclusions: This study substantiates positive role of skilledcounseling by a trained dedicated breastfeeding counselorduring the antenatal and post-natal periods on breastfeedingpractices during the first six months of life.